[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 10043]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   CONGRESSIONAL NEUROSCIENCE CAUCUS

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we had the inaugural briefing 
of the Congressional Neurologic Science Caucus. The caucus seeks to 
involve and inform people on Capitol Hill about advances, 
opportunities, and challenges that face us with neuroscience.
  I appreciate the leadership of my colleague, Kathy McMorris Rodgers, 
who is founding cochair of this effort and someone who cares deeply 
about neuroscience issues, achieved in part through some difficult 
personal experience. I admire her courage and appreciate her adding to 
this important agenda.
  We're discovering so many areas related to the brain and so much 
about how the neurological system works, how it's damaged, how it 
recovers, how the brain responds to our environment, understanding 
interrelationships between traumatic brain injury, hydrocephalous, 
dementia, Alzheimer's. We stand to gain so much from this research.
  Developments in neuroscience offer the greatest opportunity for the 
26 percent of American adults who suffer from mental disorders to 
reduce and perhaps avoid dysfunction, disease to live better, healthier 
lives.
  The tremendous toll on victims and their families, their employees, 
employers and friends, the Federal Government needs to be aggressively 
involved and engaged. We hope the Neuroscience Caucus can help do just 
that.

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